Double icon alert: Sheryl Lee Ralph and Janet Jackson at Essence Fest.

 

I don’t know if Sarah will be reviewing Minions: The Rise of Gru but it’s a record-breaking hit and, alongside Top Gun: Maverick, could save the movie theatre experience. Seriously! Over the weekend I was at Trader Joe’s and the man next to me was telling the cashier that he had just seen Minions: The Rise of Gru and loved it and wanted to go back for a second time but his wife wanted to switch it up. He had the biggest grin on his face (but an earnest grin, not a sarcastic one) and if movies are magic, Gru and Tom Cruise are Siegfried & Roy for the talkies. They get butts in seats. Even when the audience is taking part in a gag (there’s a TikTok challenge in which young people dress up in suits and go watch Minions together), that’s still a ticket sold. 

 

It’s Tom Cruise’s birthday and as Lainey wrote, he’s taking a victory lap. When Tom wants to go underground, he can disappear for months or longer and right now, he wants to be visible. This led to a resurgence of the Tom Cruise coconut cake, a treat he sends out to his favourite colleagues. In 2018, he told James Corden it’s because he loves sugar (Tom has a sweet tooth!) and can’t eat it when he’s preparing to fly a blimp through the Bermuda Triangle or whatever. The cake is from Doan’s Bakery (available via Goldbelly) and it’s actually coconut white chocolate, which has drastically affected how much I want to try this cake. I despise white chocolate. (But who am I kidding, I wouldn’t turn it down if someone offered me a piece.)

 

Kate Moss has been named the creative director of Diet Coke. Does she need to renovate her house or something?

 

International treasure Mel Brooks is 96. “What’s your big beef with the Nazis?” is probably the best joke/reaction ever captured on film.